Synopsis: Senator Gianni Puppis (Lando Buzzanca) has spent his whole life dedicated to politics while renouncing all of desires towards women. Shortly after receiving his parties nomination for the presidency Senator Gianni Puppis becomes inflicted with the uncontrollable urge to grab women’s bottoms. To make matters worse a blackmailer has proof of Senator Gianni Puppis’s wandering hand and the blackmailer threatens to go public unless they are quickly compensated. Senator Gianni Puppis is whisked away to a monastery where he is given treatment to overcome his addiction to women’s rear ends. Will Senator Gianni Puppis be able to find a cure for his growing desires or it is to late to save him and his chance at the presidency?

The Eroticist was directed between two of Lucio Fulci’s most famous giallo’s A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin and Don’t Torture a Duckling. Visually The Eroticist is on par with style wise with films like One on Top of the Other, A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin and Don’t Torture a Duckling. Cinematographer Sergio D’Offizi in first collaboration with Lucio Fulci gives the film a strong tapestry of vivid colors and surreal imagery. Fred Bongusto’s score for the film drives how the various scenarios which crop up in the film like the music cue he uses when Senator Gianni Puppis is about to grab someone’s ass. Fred Bongusto score is very important to the film as a whole and lesser music would have greatly affected the end result of this film.

The film starts off with some political B.S. before settling into a more comedy driven piece. The comedy is very easy to identify even though there are cultural differences to consider and yet how Fulci unveils everything visual there is a universal appeal to the film and its madcap plot. The cast all are very good in their perspective roles with the lead of role Senator Gianni Puppis who is portrayed by Lando Buzzanca whose facial expressions and body movements convey so much more then words ever could. Also keep an eye out for actress Anita Strindberg in her brief cameo as the French ambassadors’ wife. My favorite moment shot in the film is when Senator Gianni Puppis walks behind twenty one nuns and grabs each one in succession their bottoms.

The Eroticist is the kind of film that is going to divide Fucli fans into two groups those who only adore his gore films and those who are completists. If one goes into The Eroticist expecting a comedy instead of just viewing the film as a Lucio Fucli film then most will come away less then satisfied with the end results. Ultimately The Eroticist has all the style, substance and mayhem one would expect while watching a Lucio Fulci film.

The DVD:

The Eroticist is presented in an anamorphic widescreen that preserves the film’s original aspect ratio. The Eroticist had been released a few years before on DVD by a company named Dagored films with a nearly unwatchable audio/video presentation. For fans of this rarely seen Lucio Fulci film who had suffered through Dagored films shoddy release can now finally see the film this time titled The Eroticist via Severin Films DVD release which presents the film in its best audio/video presentation to date.

This release is also highlighted by a forty three minute documentary titled “A History of Censorship” that includes Interviews with actor Lando Buzzanca, Cinematographer Sergio D’Offizi and Make-up Artist Giannetto De Rossi. The Eroticist in now finally available uncut in North America via Severin Films superb DVD release, recommended.